So in SE Michigan there’s a MTB Trail called the DTE Foundation Trail just north of Chelsea,MI. I have a couple segments in my pinned post so you can see what kind of trail it is.

For a mountain biker it has three major sections (more still under development including connectors to a larger network, but i digress.). 

* Green Loop - easy flow

* Kame - big climbs, big downhills with jumps, super flow, technical climbs - intermediate

* Winn Loop - long flow with grinding climbs and long downhills, technical features. - intermediate

* Sugar Loop - fast flow and major speed but more technical- difficult

The usual flow is you start on the green loop and move onto the Big Kame, then the Winn, then the Sugar, then back up the loops to the trailhead. 

How is it relevant to the Silence? Well the west side of the Winn Loop. 

Things just happen there. I’ve been to DTE so many times and the uneasy feeling never goes away on the West side of the Winn. I’ll pass riders who have taken some bad falls and require a medivac. There’s a spot where the forest looks pretty open but it’s quiet.

Unless there’s a storm moving through the area, you don’t hear anything. 

See in the distance there?

That used to be a trail and after the tree fell over no one opened it back up.

There’s always this heavy… musk.. in that area specifically. I know the smell of deer and it isn’t that. Something else lives in the area and it creeps me out. 

Part of me thinks this is the range a mountain lion but those sightings are super rare and have been mostly a little bit more east.

The most perplexing thing is that this is really close to Sugarloaf Lake and there are some people living out there so there shouldn’t be a reason for this unease…

I’m not the only person that’s felt it but yeah there’s something really not right with the forest there.